Archive for the ‘Stanley Cup’ Category

I’d like to send out a big, heartfelt congratulations to the Chicago Blackhawks and their fans for winning the Stanley Cup this year. It was a pretty exciting Finals series and the good guys won. The Chicago fans were great and I’m extremely jealous of them.

I have a few random thoughts about the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs and I’ve decided not to try to arrange them in any kind of meaningful way. Just so you know, right up front.

• As seen above, and elsewhere, Patrick Sharp is a handsome, handsomeman. He’s also a pretty good goal-scorer and a fairly good defensive forward and he shoots right and the ‘Hawks might have to part with somebody important next season. Just puttin’ it out there.

When the Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999, I was a hockey fan rookie. I enjoyed it and I thought it was exciting, but I had no idea what an accomplishment it was. I know that when it happens again (fingers crossed!) I’ll have a completely different viewpoint. I hope I get a chance to prove that soon.

Philippe Boucher had his Day with the Stanley Cup on the 4th of July. He took it to his home town for a parade and to his “cottage” on the lake for a party with friends and family. He even took it through the drive-thru at McDonalds.

The tradition of letting each player and most of the staff from the Stanley Cup-winning team spend a day with it is just one of many reasons that it’s the best trophy in sports.

I’m so happy for Philippe. This was a crazy season for him. It was a crazy season for the Stars (and for the Pens, for that matter). It’s great that things worked out for him. I think I can stop being upset about his being traded. I wish he were still here, but I’m sure he’d say now that he’s glad he got to go to Pittsburgh.

Bouche’s pal, Stéphane Robidas, was one of his party guests. It sounds like he had some fun, too. His communing with the Cup might be just the mojo the Stars need this season.

I totally whiffed on my chance to do a nice post about the 10th Anniversary of the Dallas Stars’ Stanley Cup win! I missed the date, but I have really been enjoying the video and photo galleries and stories that the Stars have had up on their official site.

They have been posting highlights and post-games shows and photo galleries and links to newspaper articles for each game that the Stars won on their way to the Championship. It’s really been fascinating.

I was a big Stars fan back then. I watched the entire playoffs. I stayed up all night that night watching three different local news channels trying to catch as much locker-room celebration as I could. The thing is, my memory of a lot of it is sketchy.

I remember Brett Hull sitting on top of the lockers with a big cigar, just grinning like mad. I remember Modano in tears most of the time. I remember everybody drinking from the Cup. I remember that I was grinning like mad the whole time.

I don’t remember the names of all the players, though. Some of them I don’t recognize watching them climb the stairs onto the plane. It’s not that it was so long ago, although it was. It’s mostly that I had no idea what was going on.